San Francisco, 15 November 2012 - The San Francisco non-profit The Children’s Book Project celebrates 20 years of giving away free books to the underserved. That’s 2 MILLION BOOKS in two decades. A celebration will be held on Wednesday December 5th at the Latino/Hispanic Meeting Rooms at San Francisco Public Library from 5:30 pm.

Lisa Bishop is a teacher-librarian at Flynn Elementary School, part of the San Francisco Unified School District. She’s been receiving books from Children’s Book Project since it started twenty years ago and is passionate about the work that Pollack and others are doing to promote childhood literacy. “It’s an overhwelming feelings for a child to have a new book. To have a book that they can choose for themselves and keep for themselves. Free books are like the greatest candy bar. Plus you’re creating a society that is literate. A democratic society.” says Bishop.

The Children’s Book Project was founded by Vicky Pollack to help build literacy by providing free, new and gently used books to children who need them. Recipients of free books and educational materials include teachers, social workers, librarians and neighborhood drop-in centers.

Some facts:

Children who have not developed some basic literacy skills by the time they enter school are 3-4 times more likely to drop out in later years.

1 in 5 high school graduates cannot read their diplomas.

21 million Americans cannot read.

The Children’s Book Project is a non-profit, 501c(3) that relies entirely on donations. It works to help disadvantaged children learn to read by providing children and their shelters, schools, daycare and community centers with books and other resources. Since its beginning in January 1992, the Children’s Book Project has given over 2 million free books to hundreds of facilities serving thousands of children throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. CBP is part of the umbrella organization, First Book San Francisco, working together to provide literacy materials and books to the underserved in the SF Bay area.

For more information about The Children’s Book Project, please contact Vicki Pollack or Kathy Katz at 415-401-6315 www.childrensbookproject.org.

For more information on the 20th Anniversary event, or First Book San Francisco please contact Michelle Smith, 415-900-6657.